The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Your Well Deserved Holiday Bonus

• Kara Ryska • Episode 282

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Hi, I am Kara, life coach, wife and mom to four incredible and unique children. It wasn't all that long ago that my son received a diagnosis that had my world come crashing down. I lacked the ability to see past the circumstances, which felt impossible and the dreams I once had for my life and family felt destroyed. Fast forward, past many years of surviving and not at all thriving, and you'll see a mom who trusts that she can handle anything that comes her way and has access to the power and confidence that once felt so lacking. I created the Special Needs Mom podcast to create connection and community with moms who find themselves feeling trapped and with no one who really understands. My intention is to spark the flare of possibility in your own life and rekindle your ability to dream. This isn't a podcast about your special needs child. This is a podcast about you. If you are a mom who feels anxious, alone or stuck, then you are in the right place. Welcome.

Hello and welcome to the Special Needs Mom podcast and happy Christmas Eve. And ladies. It is holiday bonus season. I have a fun lighthearted episode for you today. I felt like that's what I was being called for, even though I know and I wanna acknowledge. Your day may not be yet filled with fun and lightness. And actually that's why I created this episode or this particular topic, I should say. It is that time of year where my friends and family, I keep hearing about people getting holiday bonuses. Even my friend who's a teacher said she got a holiday bonus, which I thought was great. I have no issue with it, but I was, I've never heard of a teacher getting a holiday bonus. She does work for a charter school, so that may have something to do with it. Let's just say that my husband, who is a school administrator, has yet to receive holiday bonus. But the topic is, I mean, that's kind of often many industries, many places that is a custom that we do. And so then, we pan over and we look at the experience we're having as caregivers. My guess is that you have yet to receive your holiday bonus from your employer, assuming you are a full-time caregiver now, if you are also a working mom, I do hope you have gotten a bonus, but we're really kind of talking about our role as we play, as caregivers, as moms, as special needs moms. However, you, you know, what wording, you use most often. so I work with a couple organizations, to support them in their leadership. I don't often talk about on the podcast, but that's a big bulk of the work I do as a coach. And the heart behind it is how can they acknowledge the work and the contributions that their employees have made throughout the year. And they traditionally have done it through a holiday bonus or end of the year bonus. And this got me to thinking who's recognizing you? Many of our children aren't able to articulate in traditional ways how meaningful the work is that you do. And you know, you do the work day in and day out most of the time, very few days off. Most of the time, a 24 hour shift. And our children, or even our spouses aren't able to fully articulate how incredible you are and how glad they are to have you on the team. So it's beyond the money. It's beyond the like check, which is always nice to have, but it's really this acknowledgement of being seen, being appreciated, and being valued and as the title indicated. I thought of a workaround, and that is I made you a holiday bonus. I had to be a little clever'cause it wasn't feasible for me to give each and every one of you a check with a nice card. And I came up with something that I think has the spirit behind it, that has the spirit of you receiving something and receiving it as your holiday bonus. And what it is, is it's a custom made for special needs moms nervous systems and life Spotify playlist. Now, I know it's not earth shattering, but I do think it's kind of fun. It's been very fun for me to think about you going to this list and us all listening to these songs together and, Letting them be something that, that kind of washes us with connection, washes us with being seen, with gratitude, and everything in between. Now, if you don't use Spotify, you're gonna have to reach out to me. I have a workaround, but You're gonna have to be a little more active to receive your gift. And like I mentioned, I pictured you home for the holidays, in your home, which is sometimes by choice in choosing to abstain from going out to families or to travel. And in some case, not by choice, by you have no other option, but. I picture you listening to this list, using it as a tool to kind of lean back on my episode that aired the week, prior to Christmas Eve, to help you choose how to intentionally celebrate this season for yourself. Now, for my Jewish friends, next year we will have something curated, especially for you. If that is you, reach out to me'cause I'd love to co-create that together. And so I started making the list and I got, like, really carried away and I spent way too much time on it. And then I ended up making two lists. So I have two lists I'll tell you about them. The first one is special needs mom holiday. So this one is gonna be your classic. Obviously Christmas definitely has a vibe that you're gonna like turn it on and think Christmas. These are Christmas songs, and again, this is where it meets your nervous system. So they're not those like really annoying ones that you're like, I just never wanna hear the song again. I've selected different artists that are much more palatable, but also with the same nostalgic vibe. So the idea is that this is a list to help you, intentionally curate your own Christmas experience. Now, the second list is what I'm calling cozy and calm for special needs moms. It kind of rhymes. It's close. but this list is kind of for the rest of your winter break, and I'm picturing us, in those days that feel long and feel hard and you feel alone. And this is the list where you can put on. And it's not like happy music. It's not like, oh, you're gonna put this on and start dancing. That's not the vibe. It's just the vibe of putting some music on. To kind of engage with where you're at and to help orient your heart towards hope and survival as you navigate this out of routine time period. So those are the two lists I created for you. Now the good news is if you are a current newsletter slash email subscriber, you will automatically get this gift, this holiday bonus. so you're all set. If you're not. What I invite you to do is to go to the show notes here on this episode, and you'll enter your information and then you will receive it right away. So, you'll get it and you will be able to listen to it. And that's why I am like, okay, it's like Christmas Eve today. So I want you to, you know, open it today and listen to it. But don't you worry if it's a little late after that. That's why I created Cozy and Calm for the special needs mom. So. I hope you enjoy it and we will release an episode on the 31st, so we have one more episode in 2025. And then Andy, who is, my right hand woman along with Alex, who edits our podcast. I've been, dreaming up a lot of new and exciting things with them and so we have a lot of really fun things coming. So. I'm very excited. So stay tuned. Keep an eye out because, we definitely are in, oh my gosh, my 13-year-old. He's talking about how he's in his, what does he call it? He calls his, his arc. He's like, I'm in my dark arc or my, my mean arc. Or he says something, I can't think of a particular word because he's a very straight edge kid. And so when he says, I'm in my. Either, whatever, the opposite of that is arc. It's pretty funny. So Andy and I are in our creative generative arc and watch out. There's a lot coming your way. if we get it all done, which we will one at a time, and probably not on the timeline that we want, but that's totally fine. Okay, well, with that we're gonna wrap it up. I'll see you next week, and I hope you've enjoyed this concept and have received your acknowledgement and your holiday bonus.